Astros Hire Alex Cora as Bench Coach

Yesterday afternoon, the Astros confirmed the hiring of Alex Cora as the team's new bench coach, filling the opening left by Trey Hillman. Hillman, who served as bench coach under A.J. Hinch for two seasons, announced his departure in late October to take a managerial post in South Korea.

Cora played fourteen major league years as a somewhat-journeyman infielder, starting his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998 and retiring as a Washington National in 2011, with many stops in between. He hit .243/.310/.338 for his career, and won a World Series with Boston in 2007. Advanced fielding metrics that have been popularized since his playing days are a little kinder to Cora - he registered…